Birds the Word

A new research study by the Boston Globe found that restaurants are substituting low quality fish for high dollar menu items. This may or may not be intentional. Sometimes restaurants run out of a fish so they substitute something similar – most restaurant patrons never even notice. Other restaurants are doing it intentionally to reduce overhead and increase profit margins. Still other had no idea they were buying mislabeled fish from markets or suppliers. Is this affecting your Dallas – Fort Worth restaurant? Maybe. If you’re buying fresh fish from the Massachusetts area, there’s a possibility you’re getting the wrong fish! Out of 26 red snapper samples, 24 of them turned out to be a lower quality fish. 23 white tuna samples (all the samples taken) were actually escolar.

It may not seem like a huge issue. So some restaurants are skimping during hard times. Well, the issue for me is the fact that as a consumer, I’m not sure what I’m getting. For me this is a huge concern because my man has a severe fish allergy. Cross contamination is always a concern when we order fish, but it’s much harder to control if the cooks don’t even know what types of fish they are really working with. Not to mention I’d like to get what I pay for!